Author

Goh, Camellia Kai Lyn

Date of Issue

2017

School

National Institute of Education

Abstract

Over the years, sport sponsorship has grown to be increasingly popular as a marketing strategy adopted by companies. Though companies are investing huge amount of sponsorship dollars, many do not track their return on investment. It is critical to identify this effectiveness to justify the hefty amounts invested. Despite the sporting nature of sports events, little have been done to measure sport involvement and its effect on sponsorship effectiveness as previous studies tend to measure attachment and interest. Hence, looking at the WTA Finals Singapore 2016, the purpose of the study is to assess the differences in brand recall rate and purchase intention between groups with differing level of involvement in sports and tennis. Adopting the convenience sampling method, 115 survey responses were collated from participants that have been to the event. Data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U test and independent-samples t-tests. Results showed that there were no significant differences in brand recall and purchase intention between active and inactive group. While significant difference is found in purchase intention between high and low tennis involvement group, differences in brand recall were found to be insignificant. Thus, in terms of sport involvement, companies should view consumers’ as a whole target segment while trying to market their products and/or services. Specifically, sports marketers should target individuals that are highly involved in tennis as they are more likely to purchase their products or services.